Evolutionary Genetics and Conservation Biology

Lab News

November 2018: Dr. Reece and students were featured in a video for Fresno State’s Day of Giving! The video was about Dr. Reece’s work with Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks for environmental DNA sampling of the rivers in the area. Check it out here!

October 2018: Reece Lab was featured in Fresno State news for research involving acoustic monitoring of bats in the Central Valley and Sequoia National Park! Check out the story here. Rachel was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship for her research on Western Pond Turtle genetics and conservation. Congratulations Rachel!

August 2018: Dr. Reece, Chris, Rachel, and Shelby travel to New Orleans, Louisiana to attend the Ecological Society of America meeting! This years’ theme was extreme events, ecosystem resilience, and human well-being. Dr. Reece gave a presentation on his research on sea level rise and climate change in Georgia and Chris, Rachel, and Shelby gave poster presentations on their research.

July-August 2018: Lab members enjoyed participating in a variety of research trips this summer! Dr. Reece and students conducted bird and invertebrate surveys in Morro Bay, snorkeled in Sequoia National Park to collect water samples and information on amphibians, reptiles, and fish that live in foothill streams, and assisted with acoustic monitoring and mist-netting of bats in Sequoia National Park.

Stream surveyors caught a western pond turtle

Filtering water samples for environmental DNA collection

Stream surveys for amphibians, fish, and reptiles

Checking for Whitenose Syndrome

Checking for Whitenose with a UV light

Keying out a bat in Sequoia National Park

Morro Bay survey crew after kayaking

Kayaking in the harbor!

Acoustic monitoring for bats

Morro Bay survey crew

Long-eared Myotis bat

June 2018: Our undergraduates Rob, Saramae, and Lexi were awarded grant funding through the ASI Undergraduate Research Grant program at CSU Fresno! Rob and Lexi are researching how coastal dredging will impact the ecology of Morro Bay, California. Saramae’s project involves using environmental DNA (eDNA) to monitor California tiger salamanders in local riverine systems. Claire, who researches sea-level rise with Dr. Reece, was accepted as a transfer student to UC Berkeley. Congratulations and best wishes Claire!

June 2018: Saramae and Dr. Reece were awarded a $5,000 grant from the Sequoia Learning Center to do environmental DNA surveys of amphibians and fish in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Our first collection trip is in July; Congratulations Saramae!

June 2018: Chrisionna joins the lab! Dr. Reece and four students (Rob, Saramae, Chrisionna, and Shelby) travel to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park to collaborate with the park wildlife team during the first of several bat monitoring events over the 2018 summer. Dr. Reece and his students assisted park staff with data collection and public outreach throughout the evening.

Enjoying the view from Moro Rock!

Checking a pallid bat for Whitenose Syndrome

May 2018: Dr. Reece led an eight-day study abroad course to Belize! He was accompanied by 18 students and another CSU Fresno biology faculty member, Dr. Lent. The group experienced the beautiful scenery, Belizean culture, and vibrant flora and fauna through birding opportunities (over 100 species of tropical birds were seen!), rainforest hikes, and snorkeling on the Belize Barrier Reef! The course focused on conservation and the biodiversity of Belize’s birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. Students learned about the different Belizean ecosystems, conservation issues, and the interaction between biodiversity and humans in Belize. It was an amazing trip!

Representing Fresno State!

Hike to St. Herman’s Cave!

Exploring Mayan ruins!

A sunny day out on the Belize Barrier Reef!

Jungle survival hike!

March 2018: Dr. Reece, Rachel, Saramae, Lexi, and Shelby attended a donor event for the College of Science and Mathematics to present their research. Rachel and Saramae presented on California Tiger Salamander eDNA and Western Pond Turtle conservation genetics. Lexi and Shelby presented on interdisciplinary course-based research and the impacts of coastal dredging in Morro Bay.

February 2018: Dr. Reece and Conservation Biology students travel to Morro Bay to collect more sediment and survey for coastal birds. They were joined by Dr. Brady’s sedimentology class.

Dr. Reece talking to Dr. Brady’s sedimentology class

Hike to Valencia Peak!

January 2018: Dr. Reece and his Conservation Biology class travel to Morro Bay to collect sediment samples and survey for coastal birds!

Hike to Black Hill!

Canoeing across the harbor

January 2018: Dr. Reece, Chris, Rachel, and Shelby travel to Santa Clara to present research at the CSUPERB conference.

Chris presenting his research on mammal phylogenetics

October 2017: Rachel, Claire, Bryant, Rob, Lexi, Saramae, and Daisy joined the lab as undergraduates! Chris, Rachel, Claire, and Shelby were awarded FSSRA grants and Claire and Shelby were awarded COAST grants.

June 2017: Dr. Reece, Chris, and Shelby traveled to Portland, Oregon for the 2017 Evolution conference. Dr. Reece gave a talk about body size and shape evolution in hagfish, Chris presented on phylogenetics of California’s high-risk mammals, and Shelby gave a poster presentation on phylogenetics of climate change vulnerability in California birds.

November 2016: Our undergraduate, Francisco Barajas, was awarded funding from the “COAST Undergraduate Student Research Support Award” from CSU Fresno for his research on hagfish evolution!

October 2016: Dr. Reece and the lab travel to San Francisco to take hagfish measurements from the California Academy of Sciences.

August 2016: Reece Lab moves to CSU Fresno!

Shelby, Gurjap, Francisco, Conner, and Michael all join the lab as undergraduates.

The red-haired Reece was recently featured in an article by PBS on one of his sea turtle papers. Read the full story here.

Dr. Reece was accompanied by two additional VSU faculty members, Theodore Uyeno and Corey Anderson, in attending the 2015 International Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) meeting in West Palm Beach, Florida. Each of the faculty members presented on their research, and we also brought along seven VSU undergraduates who presented on their research. The students (and their advisors) were:

Bradley D. Owens (Reece-Uyeno)

Erika L. Schumacher (Reece)

Arturo Sanchez (Reece)

Lauren C. Sparks-Hoskins (Reece)

Ashilee T. Thomas (Reece)

William A. Haney (Reece-Anderson)

Yessi Castro (Uyeno)

Dr. Reece gave an oral presentation on his research on how sea-level rise, climate change, and human infrastructure affects sea turtle nesting patterns. Dr. Uyeno was invited to speak in a special symposium on the biomechanics of soft-bodied organisms. Dr. Anderson presented a poster on his research on the spatial distribution of spanish moss.

As for the students:

Brad Owens attended to learn more about the comparative methods he is using to understand the evolution of hagfish and their unique morphological characteristics. Erika Schumacher coauthored two posters, one with Arturo Sanchez and Dr. Reece where we describe a method we developed to use genetics to identify the sex of the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, a Federally Endangered species with males and females that look identical. This work will aid in the design of captive rearing programs for this species. In a second poster, Erika Schumacher, William Haney, Dr. Reece and Dr. Anderson describe the results of a genetic survey of the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow where we show that the mysterious and precipitous decline in this endangered species is not due to low genetic diversity. Lauren Sparks-Hoskins and Dr. Reece presented a poster that examined how different color patterns evolved in tropical moray eels. Lauren developed a crowd-source method (using VSU undergraduates) to identify unique color patterns and then she examined evolutionary correlations between color patterns and the ecology of the different eel species. She found that different color patterns probably relate to the ability of morays to camouflage themselves, either to ambush prey or to avoid predation themselves. Ashilee Thomas and Dr. Reece presented a poster describing their research on how different species of eels evolved from ancestors that were entirely marine to descendant species that varied from marine to freshwater to brackish water to different types if migratory eels that spend portions of their lives in freshwater but breed in salt-water. We found that the ability to move from marine to freshwater environments evolved independently several times, probably through unique adaptations each time. Yessi Castro delivered an oral presentation on how a local species of crayfish (sampled from near the VSU campus) generates sound, and under what conditions it makes various types of sound. See article here.

Dr. Reece taught the inaugural version of his Coastal Biodiversity (BIOL 4020/6020) course this summer. Thirteen students participated in this course, which focused on the coastal ecosystems of Florida and Georgia. This was primarily a field course, and the class visited Sapelo Island (a barrier island in Georgia), Florida’s gulf coast springs and beaches, Seahorse Key (Gulf of Mexico), Key Largo for snorkeling and diving in coastal marine environments, Everglades National Park, the premier nesting beach for loggerhead turtles in Melbourne Beach, Florida, and the Matanzas region of North Florida. In addition to field experiences in coastal ecosystems, students focused on understanding how past climate change and sea-level rise has affected these systems, and how the current pattern of accelerated anthropogenic climate change is and is likely to continue to affect these systems. Dr. Reece plans to teach this class in future Maymesters. See article here.